wagymnasticsfandomcom-20200222-history
Main:Ellie Downie
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK |Row 4 title = Years on National Team |Row 4 info = 2008-present |Row 5 title = Club |Row 5 info = Notts Gymnastics Club |Row 6 title = Coach(es) |Row 6 info = Claire Starkey |Row 7 title = Current status |Row 7 info = Active |Row 8 title = Twitter |Row 8 info = @elliedownie}}Elissa "Ellie" Downie (born July 20 in Nottingham) is an elite British gymnast and 2016 Olympian. She is the 2017 European All-Around Champion, the first British gymnast to accomplish this feat, and the 2017 British National Champion. She is also the 2015 European All-Around bronze medalist and swept all the gold medals at the 2016 Osijek World Cup. She was very successful as a junior gymnast as well, as she was the 2014 Junior European Vault Champion and Junior European All-Around bronze medalist, the 2014 Youth Olympic Games All-Around, beam and floor bronze medalist and vault silver medalist. She was also a member of the bronze-medal winning British team at the 2015 World Championships. She has an older sister, Becky, who was also a member of Great Britain's 2016 Olympic team. Junior Career 2013 Downie made her international debut in 2013, competing at the WOGA Classic in Texas, where she won bronze with her team and silver on vault. In March, she competed at the British Championships, winning bronze in the all-around, gold on vault, and silver on uneven bars and balance beam in the junior division. At the British Team Championships later that spring, she helped her gym, Notts, place fourth. In July, she competed at the European Youth Olympic Festival. The British Team won silver in the team final. Individually, Downie placed fourth in the all-around (behind compatriot Tyesha Mattis), won gold on vault, and placed seventh on uneven bars. In late October, she was named to the British team for the Élite Gym Massilia in November, alongside her older sister Becky. In the Master Team division, the British team placed second on vault and floor, third in the all-around and bars, and sixth on beam. Individually, Downie placed fourth on vault, sixth on bars and floor, and twelfth in the all-around. She qualified to the Top Massilia, winning bronze on vault and floor, and placing fourth on bars. In December, she competed at the Brasilia Gymnasiade, winning bronze with her team and on uneven bars, and placing fourth on vault, and sixth in the all-around and on floor exercise. 2014 In March, Downie competed at the English Championships, winning silver on vault and bronze on floor, and placing fouth in the all-around and seventh on beam, debuting a new Patterson dismount. During podium training at the British Championships, she sustained a minor injury on her beam dismount and chose to withdraw from the competition. She recovered in time to compete in a junior friendly meet against gymnasts from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain, winning team silver and placing fourth in the all-around. In May, she competed at her first European Championships. She won the junior vault title, silver with her team, bronze in the all-around, and placed fifth on bars. During the summer Ellie was selected to represent Great Britain at the Youth Olympic Games. She was considered a heavy favorite for the all-around title. In the all-around, she fell on floor exercise and won bronze. She picked up additional bronze medals on beam and floor, as well as silver on vault, making her the most decorated female gymnast of the Youth Olympics. Senior Career 2015 Downie's senior debut came at the English Championships in March. Competing against her older sister for the first time, she won silver on beam and placed sixth on floor and ninth on bars. At her first senior British Championships, she took home silver on vault and bars and bronze in the all-around. She was named to the British team for her first senior European Championships, where she won bronze in the all-around and placed fourth on bars and fifth on vault. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. A rough day in qualifications cost her a spot in the all-around, but she helped the British team qualify third into the team final. She had a fall on uneven bars in the first rotation, but rallied afterwards and delivered the final vault that secured a historic bronze medal, Great Britain's first World team medal, in front of the home crowd. Individually, she placed fourth on vault and sixth on floor exercise. 2016 Downie started off the season at the British Championships in April, winning vault gold, all-around bronze, and placing fourth on balance beam and floor exercise. Later that month, she competed at the Osijek World Cup in Croatia and swept all the gold medals, a feat that had not been accomplished since Ludmilla Tourischeva at the 1975 World Cup Final in London. In June, she competed at the European Championships. Although Great Britain qualified first into the team final, falls on bars and beam prevented them from taking the gold, and instead they won the silver. Individually, Downie won vault and floor exercise silver. She was announced as part of the British Olympic team in July.Olympics Rio Olympics Having won team bronze at the last World Championships, expectations were high for the British team. They competed in the third subdivision of qualifications, starting on uneven bars. Things went swimmingly for Downie for the first two rotations, until floor exercise. She badly underrotated a punch front out of her third tumbling pass, causing her to land on her head. She got back up and attempted to finish the routine, but before her last pass, she realized she couldn't continue. She looked very dazed as she was examined by the team doctors, and was escorted off the podium. However, she refused to give up and returned to the competition to finish up on vault. Not only did she help Great Britain qualify in fourth place, she also was able to qualify for the all-around in twenty-fourth place. She also qualified as the third reserve for the vault final and the second reserve for the balance beam final. Great Britain placed fifth in the team final, besting their team placement from the Olympics four years ago. She performed much better in the all-around, placing thirteenth. 2017 Downie continued to compete after Rio, becoming British National Champion in March and winning additional gold medals on vault and uneven bars. She was set to compete at the London World Cup in April, but sustained a minor foot injury and had to withdraw.foot injury, WC withdrawal Downie was well enough to compete at the European Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania later that month. She was impressive in qualifications, qualifying to every event final in addition to qualifying first to the all-around. She kept up her consistent performances to win the European All-Around title, a first for British gymnastics. She also won silver on vault and floor, bronze on uneven bars, and placed fourth on balance beam. Unfortunately, she had surgery on her ankle over the summer, causing her to miss the World Championships in Montreal.ankle surgery 2018 Downie returned to competition at the English Championships in February, only competing on three events: bars, beam, and floor. She won bronze on floor exercise and placed fifth on balance beam. After the competition, she had her ankle scanned and discovered it wasn't completely healed.ankle injury This required an extra two weeks of recovery, which eventually caused her to miss the British Championships and Birmingham World Cup. The injury later required another operation, which caused her to miss the Commonwealth Games in Australia.second surgery Downie returned to competition after injury at the Paris World Cup, making the uneven bars final. Unfortunately, she fell during her routine and finished in seventh place. She was later named to the British team for the World Championships in Doha, Qatar in late October. Great Britain didn't qualify to the team final, but Downie qualified to the all-around, where she placed eleventh. 2019 Downie competed at the English Championships in early March, competing on bars, winning gold, and beam, placing sixth. At the British Championships, she reclaimed her National all-around title, and additionally won gold on vault and floor exercise, and placed seventh on balance beam. Unfortunately at the Birmingham World Cup, she fell twice on bars and once on beam, finishing seventh. Downie returned to the European Championships in April as the reigning all-around champion, qualifying to the all-around and vault finals. She had a much improved competition in the all-around, but fell short of defending her title by 0.068. She won silver behind France's Mélanie de Jesus Dos Santos and ahead of Russia's Angelina Melnikova. In the vault final, she won bronze. At the Paris World Cup in September, she qualified for both balance beam and floor exercise, but opted to withdraw to save herself for the World Championships.Paris WC withdrawal In October, she competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. She won bronze on vault, placed sixth with her team, and helped Great Britain qualify a full team to the 2020 Olympics. Medal Count Floor Music 2014 - "Señorita" by Bond 2015 - "Why Don't You" by Gramophonedzie 2016 - "Skeletons" by Drehz 2017 - "Who (Wolsh Bootleg)" by Tujamo & Plastic Funk 2018 - "Cross Your Mind" by Sabrina Claudio References